Citas a Ciegas

Individuals make first contact with one another through postings on a website. It can be someone you know, a total stranger, or even somebody from another country. Dates are then arranged by mutual agreement and are meant to be casual in nature -the idea is to get each other's email address, strike up some more conversations about common interests, and decide if you want to meet for coffee or dinner this Friday. This gives the people involved an opportunity to vet each other before committing themselves to something more serious, such as a blind date that requires all kinds of planning beforehand.

The first thing someone will find out when they agree to a blind date is whether their date is male or female, and from there you have the option of striking up a conversation on topics like sports, travel, food, weather, family and pets.

By the time the day of that first meeting arrives, you'll have already guessed if this is someone you can hang out with for an hour without feeling bored or uncomfortable. You'll know if the person has the same sense of humor as you and whether he or she eats and drinks in moderation. You may even be able to tell if you share certain political or religious viewpoints.

The idea of going on a blind date was born out of a survey conducted in the early days of the Internet -- this is when email accounts were still free and new users were encouraged to create profiles that they could share with friends. People would then exchange email addresses, meet up, and decide if they wanted to get married right away or just keep each other as pen pals. It's clear that this first use of the Internet was very practical in nature; it allowed people in different regions of the country -- even different countries -- to connect for the sake of friendship or for something more serious. It was a means of exchanging information and making connections, and the intent was not to allow people to see each other's faces.

The notion of seeing and interacting with another person who -for the moment- is only known by her or his first name had no precedent in human history. And it would certainly not occur in any subsequent human culture that survived into the modern era, since phones were still something of a rarity at that time. Instead, people chose to use the Internet as a means of exchange, rather than as a means of vision. They would create profiles on new sites and exchange email addresses with each other -sharing information about hobbies or interests originally confined to small groups -- and then catch up when they saw each other in person. The term "blind date" was born from this technological era, and its four components continued to define the nature of online dating for at least a decade.

The first component of a blind date is the unknown person in question. You don't know their gender, you don't know their age or occupation -in fact, you don't even know what they look like! The only thing you do know is that they are located within a short distance from your own home; you might even run into each other somewhere in the streets of your neighborhood if you end up agreeing to meet. The unknown nature of personal connections is what makes the modern blind date so different from those that preceded it. But the second component is more important than this.

It's the process of arranging a meeting, and it requires that you both agree to meet. This places an emphasis on communication, because if you cannot easily arrange a time to meet with someone, communication will fail in a matter of minutes and your blind date will be over before it even begins.

The third component also encourages communication; once you've met someone new, you need to keep in touch. As you spend time with this person, you'll have the opportunity to start a conversation about topics like your favorite kinds of food, your favorite sports teams, or your favorite vacation destination. If one of these discussions runs long enough, and soon enough it will, you may even find yourself in a situation where you're sitting on the couch at his or her house having dinner. This kind of meeting is often depicted in popular culture as either something romantic (like the film "When Harry Met Sally") or complete and utter awkwardness (like the different Date movie).

The fourth and final component of a blind date is the moment when your relationship either ends or continues for another day. You can tell the person about your feelings, or you can end up seeing them again in a week or two for dinner. This may also be an opportunity to meet the person's friends and family, but if it is not, just remember how well you got along with them during dinner -the main prerequisite to having a good blind date. The last thing to consider is the context of a blind date. It occurs in a situation in which the two people involved don't know the outcome of their meeting beforehand.

On the one hand, you can imagine that people who organize these meetings will have expectations about how each one should turn out. You might have had a blind date before, and you know what your friend anticipated when he or she set up that first encounter between you and someone he or she knew very well; it's also possible that there are expectations built into what you've read online: people who plan to go on dates with others may not express any sense of doubt or hesitation before getting together, even though they may actually be nervous about it.

At the same time, this is a situation in which you can say anything you want and develop an intimate relationship with someone through the right combination of humor, physical contact, and honesty. There are no expectations of what the date will lead to, since it was organized before either person knew if they wanted something more serious or not. If you make plans to remain friends afterwards, there will be no disappointment over lost love; if you end up falling in love with each other at first sight, you can enjoy every minute of your relationship because there was nothing to prepare for. This can encourage both people to be open with each other, and that can only lead to more rapport between the two of you.

The amount of benefits and drawbacks can be difficult to gauge. It seems reasonable to assume that one person will have far more control over how their date goes than the other, but this depends on how free both people are in thinking about each other. The more interested person should look at it as an opportunity to feel something new; he or she should assume that the date won't go how they expect it to, but they should also not let this ability to step outside of their comfort zones go unused.

Conclusion

There are benefits and drawbacks to both blind dating and arranged marriages. Blind dating is a method that allows people to exude their individuality, while arranged marriages can be helpful in making sure a union will work out long term. People who like blind dating should realize that they are not shooting themselves in the foot when they do choose to meet another person; they might discover they have something in common, or they could be surprised by how well they get along overall.